Excur­sion Rome-Florence

23. February 2024

Between February 20 and 23, a group of BA and MA students in from the Humboldt Univer­sity spent four inspi­ring days on an excur­sion to Rome and Florence studying the topic of museums, coll­ec­tions and museo­logy in Italy between the 15th and the 21st centuries.

Profes­sors Kath­leen Chris­tian and Eike Schmidt taught semi­nars on this topic in the Winter semester and then led the excur­sion to Italy with the inva­luable support of Wissen­schaft­liche Mitar­bei­terin Dr. Marghe­rita Taba­nelli. The sche­dule was a deman­ding, but rewar­ding one. It began with a trip to Florence and a visit to the Uffizi and Pitti museums, where the group bene­fited from the exper­tise of former director Schmidt. On the next day, the group visited EUR and discussed with the director, Dr. Andrea Villani, his plans for rethin­king and rede­sig­ning the Museo delle Civiltà. In the after­noon, students visited the Vatican Museums and took a guided tour of the Palazzo Farnese. The follo­wing day included a trip to the Villa Borg­hese and a discus­sion with the director Fran­cesca Cappel­letti, followed by time in the Museo Nazio­nale d’Arte Moderna. Finally, on Friday students were treated to a tour of the Palazzo Colonna, with a special gree­ting from Prin­cipe Prospero Colonna and museum director Patrizia Pier­gio­vanni (pictured), followed by a visit to the Capi­to­line Museums.

Over the four days the students were able to obtain a swee­ping over­view of the history of coll­ec­ting and display of art between the Renais­sance and the present, reflec­ting on themes such as the tran­si­tion from private coll­ec­tions to public museums, the history of anti­qui­ties coll­ec­tions, and the coll­ec­ting and exhi­bi­tion of non-Euro­pean objects in Italy from the time of the Medici coll­ec­tions in the 16th century to the ‘ethno­gra­phic’ coll­ec­tions housed in EUR in the 20th century.